Matt DeForrest
Active Member
I got a call from my family last week (a happy, if unexpected, virtual gathering) so missed the class discussion. I did notice one word (emphasis added) we missed in the discussion of the first slide:
”They took me and they set me alone on the pinnacle of Orthanc....”
The they here, mentioned twice, implies some of our imagined stagings (Uruk Hai or men entering with bows drawn at the end of the discussion.) have a basis in the text. It also goes a long way to explaining how Saruman so easily overcame Gandalf. It wasn’t that Saruman was significantly more powerful than Gandalf (The conversation following the flooding of the Ring of Isengard implies Saruman was not expecting a large power differential between wizards.). It was that Saruman had maneuvered Gandalf into a position where he knew Saruman had arranged things so that he had the upper hand and there was no point in fighting. Indeed, there is an implication in the unnamed “they“ that Saruman didn’t escort him to his prison.
The plural also stresses the series of singular pronouns that come, where Gandalf is pointing out how alone he is when surrounded by a sea of enemies — a sea that Saruman has now disappeared into. It has moved beyond a struggle within the White Council. Now, Saruman is a power in the world, akin to Rohan or Gondor, rather than an independent operative.
”They took me and they set me alone on the pinnacle of Orthanc....”
The they here, mentioned twice, implies some of our imagined stagings (Uruk Hai or men entering with bows drawn at the end of the discussion.) have a basis in the text. It also goes a long way to explaining how Saruman so easily overcame Gandalf. It wasn’t that Saruman was significantly more powerful than Gandalf (The conversation following the flooding of the Ring of Isengard implies Saruman was not expecting a large power differential between wizards.). It was that Saruman had maneuvered Gandalf into a position where he knew Saruman had arranged things so that he had the upper hand and there was no point in fighting. Indeed, there is an implication in the unnamed “they“ that Saruman didn’t escort him to his prison.
The plural also stresses the series of singular pronouns that come, where Gandalf is pointing out how alone he is when surrounded by a sea of enemies — a sea that Saruman has now disappeared into. It has moved beyond a struggle within the White Council. Now, Saruman is a power in the world, akin to Rohan or Gondor, rather than an independent operative.